Mark Meadows

For other people named Mark Meadows, see Mark Meadows (disambiguation).

Mark Meadows
Meadows in 2023
29th White House Chief of Staff
In office
March 31, 2020 – January 20, 2021
PresidentDonald Trump
Preceded byMick Mulvaney (acting)
Succeeded byRon Klain
Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee
In office
March 12, 2020 – March 30, 2020
Preceded byJim Jordan
Succeeded byJim Jordan
Chair of the House Freedom Caucus
In office
January 3, 2017 – October 1, 2019
DeputyJim Jordan
Preceded byJim Jordan
Succeeded byAndy Biggs
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from North Carolina's 11th district
In office
January 3, 2013 – March 30, 2020
Preceded byHeath Shuler
Succeeded byMadison Cawthorn
Personal details
Born
Mark Randall Meadows

(1959-07-28) July 28, 1959 (age 65)
Verdun, France
NationalityAmerican
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
Debbie Meadows
​
(m. 1979)​
Children2
EducationUniversity of South Florida (AA)

Mark Randall Meadows (born July 28, 1959) is an American politician who served as the 29th White House chief of staff from 2020 to 2021 under the Trump administration. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as the U.S. representative for North Carolina's 11th congressional district from 2013 to 2020. During his legislative tenure, Meadows chaired the Freedom Caucus from 2017 to 2019. He was considered one of Donald Trump's closest allies in the House of Representatives before his appointment as chief of staff.[1]

A Tea Party Republican, Meadows was a founding member of the Freedom Caucus. During his time in Congress, he was one of the most conservative Republican lawmakers and played an important part of the United States federal government shutdown of 2013. He also sought to remove John Boehner as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Meadows resigned from Congress on March 31, 2020, to become White House chief of staff. As chief of staff, he played an influential role in the Trump administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He pressured the Food and Drug Administration to adopt less strict guidelines for COVID-19 vaccine trials,[2] and admonished the White House's own infectious disease experts for not "staying on message" with Trump's rhetoric.[3] In October 2020, Meadows said it was futile to try "to control the pandemic", emphasizing instead a plan to contain it with vaccines and therapeutics. As the virus spread among White House staff in the fall of 2020, he reportedly sought to conceal the cases, including his own.[4][5] After the 2020 presidential election, Meadows participated in Trump's effort to overturn the election results and remain in power.[6][7][8]

On December 14, 2021, Meadows was held in criminal contempt of Congress[9] for refusing to cooperate with the January 6 Select Committee. He is the first White House chief of staff since the Watergate scandal and first former member of Congress to have been held in contempt of Congress.[10][11] The contempt charge was referred to the Justice Department, which declined to prosecute him.[12]

On October 26, 2022, a South Carolina circuit judge ordered Meadows to testify before a Georgia grand jury investigating Republican efforts to reverse the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. The grand jury was empaneled by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who said the inquiry is examining "the multistate, coordinated efforts to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere."[13]

On August 14, 2023, he was indicted along with 18 other people in the prosecution related to the 2020 election in Georgia; Meadows is the second White House Chief of Staff to face criminal charges, after H. R. Haldeman.[14]

On April 24, 2024, Meadows was indicted by an Arizona grand jury on felony charges along with several others related to their alleged efforts to subvert Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the state, according to an announcement by the state attorney general. Others indicted on the same charges include Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, John Eastman, Christina Bobb, top campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn, and former campaign aide Mike Roman. "They are accused of allegedly aiding an unsuccessful strategy to award the state’s electoral votes to Trump instead of Biden after the 2020 election. Also charged are the Republicans who signed paperwork on Dec. 14, 2020, that falsely purported Trump was the rightful winner, including former state party chair Kelli Ward, state Sens. Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern, and Tyler Bowyer, a GOP national committeeman and chief operating officer of Turning Point Action, the campaign arm of the pro-Trump conservative group Turning Point USA."[15]

  1. ^ Bade, Rachael; Cheney, Kyle; Johnson, Eliana (December 10, 2018). "Meadows would give Trump a skilled brawler in the White House". Politico.
  2. ^ LaFraniere, Sharon; Weiland, Noah (October 23, 2020). "White House Blocks New Coronavirus Vaccine Guidelines". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 29, 2020.
  3. ^ Rucker, Philip; Abutaleb, Yasmeen; Dawsey, Josh; Costa, Robert (August 8, 2020). "The lost days of summer: How Trump fell short in containing the virus". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 9, 2020. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
  4. ^ Abutaleb, Yasmeen; Parker, Ashley; Dawsey, Josh; Rucker, Philip (December 19, 2020). "The inside story of how Trump's denial, mismanagement and magical thinking led to the pandemic's dark winter". The Washington Post.
  5. ^ "Trump Aides Frustrated After Meadows's Silence on Infection". Bloomberg. November 7, 2020.
  6. ^ Benner, Katie (June 5, 2021). "Meadows Pressed Justice Dept. to Investigate Election Fraud Claims". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
  7. ^ Rutenberg, Jim; Becker, Jo; Lipton, Eric; Haberman, Maggie; Martin, Jonathan; Rosenberg, Matthew; Schmidt, Michael S. (January 31, 2021). "77 Days: Trump's Campaign to Subvert the Election". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 31, 2021.
  8. ^ "Memo from Trump attorney outlined how Pence could overturn election, says new book". ABC News. Retrieved November 16, 2021.
  9. ^ Grisales, Claudia (December 14, 2021). "The House votes to hold Mark Meadows in contempt, sending a criminal referral to DOJ". NPR. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
  10. ^ Dickson, Caitlyn (December 14, 2021). "House votes for Meadows to face criminal charges for defying Jan. 6 probe". Yahoo! News. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
  11. ^ "Mark Meadows, ex-Trump chief of staff, held in contempt for defying Capitol riot probe". Hindustan Times. December 15, 2021. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
  12. ^ Evan Perez; Ryan Nobles; Gloria Borger (June 4, 2022). "DOJ declines to charge Meadows and Scavino with contempt of Congress". CNN.
  13. ^ Wang, Amy; Hamburger, Tom (October 26, 2020). "Trump chief of staff Meadows ordered to testify before Ga. grand jury". Washington Post.
  14. ^ Cole, Devan; Murray, Sara; Morris, Jason; Cohen, Marshall (August 14, 2023). "Here are the names and titles of all 19 people charged in Georgia case". CNN. Retrieved August 14, 2023.
  15. ^ Wingett Sanchez, Yvonne (April 24, 2024). "Meadows, Giuliani and other Trump allies charged in Arizona 2020 election probe". Washington Post.